Meeting 2008-12-16
From Cannabis Defense Coalition
Contents |
December 16, 2008 Meeting
Agenda
- Straw Poll results
- Initiative & Referendum Projects
- Fundraising
- Dougs Lawsuits and Fundraising
- Current Cases
- New CDC logo
- Adopt-a-Road
- 10th Anniversary Celebration of passing Medical Marijuana Law
- Action Items
Straw Polls
Conclusively we believe WAC 246-75 sets the presumptive medical marijuana limits too low for many patients. We fear that this new rule may embolden law enforcement in some counties to send more medical marijuana patients through the very painful and costly court process.
Initiative & Referendum Projects
A big effort to tackle but it has to be done. Strategically starting in the county with the lowest required number of signatures would be good. We should consider the election cycle and historical outcomes of initiatives posted during certain elections. In our experience with prosecutors and judges, Kitsap county needs a persistent presence to reinforce the people's law and would be a great place to focus Initiative/Referendum energy. Some options of subject matter can be MMJ Affirmation, Lowest Priority and or Decriminalization.
Fundraising for CDC
Donation envelops have been designed and a printer has been found. CDC would benefit from having a 'spiff' sheet of sorts that outlines our projects and their expenditures for donors to see how their monies are planned to be used and give them an idea of how much money we require.
Doug's Lawsuits and Fundraising
MPP is not giving Doug grant money for 2009 so this leaves him in a bind to pay for the court case processes his clients can't always afford as well as his daily work load and overhead expenses. The three big law suits he has on his desk; Denial of Organ Transplant, Denial of MMJ use by the Department of Corrections and Department of Health Unscientific Legislation for a Medical Therapy. All three suits will have to be individually funded. As a group the CDC chose to focus our efforts on helping raise funds for the Department of Corrections law suit. Our reason for this is that the Corrections are another arm of Law Enforcement Agencies that are consistently coercing medical marijuana patients. As well, Doug has won cases that should have set precedence for a rule change in the D.O.C.
Current Cases
We need an Intake form for the Washington State Potline to better help us track cases and be advocates for the people who contact us. It may be good to assign a CDC member to be the contact person that follows through with the case tracking and advocacy. Noah with ASA has forms we can use as well as a lot of other beneficial information. Other than the cases listed in the Pot Log we have Monte LeVine, "Roger", Will Kuhl and Bruce Olsen. Will Kuhl's case follows the precedence of the recent USSC Kha case ruling, this should be advertised/publicized. Bruce Olsens case is in Kitsap County. His wife Pam had plead guilty to charges which we felt absolutely unnecessary and was due partly to a bad lawyer, disrespectful judge and a Prosecutor with an agenda against the People's Initiative. Their case has Puppycide, clear coercion during the serving of the search warrant and was initiated by a known informant that violated the Olsens privacy. Bruce's next hearing is in January and we'll run an Ad in the paper publicizing the agenda of the Law Enforcement Agents of Kitsap County. Providing better advocacy for people who contact us is necessary. The ACLU has taken on the case State v. Fry http://www.aclu-wa.org/detail.cfm?id=956 "The ACLU-WA and WACDL also contend that he was wrongly prevented from defending himself on grounds that he was a medical marijuana patient." This is an underlying theme of most MMJ cases in Washington State...The gag order imposed by the Judge on using the Defense of our States Medical Marijuana Law.
New CDC Logo
We forgot to state which logo won approval from members. They're all pretty close to each other in looks and splitting hairs over design is minimal compared to our other tasks at hand. The Logo does need to be included in the design of the donation envelops.
Adopt-A-Road
Trash is frozen to the road right now. We'll have someplace to pick up trash under our sign some time soon, a project kinda on the back burner during these frigidly cold months.
Action Items and their designate doer
- Implement Intake Form: *Pam from Noah at ASA
- Run Ad in Kitsap Sun for Bruce Olsen: *Ben
- Public Service Announcement (comic strip form) on how MMJ pt's can avoid coercion by L.E.O.: *Pam & Chuck
- 10th Anniversary Celebration of passing medical Marijuana Law: *Ric on location and ball rolling/party instigator
- Converse with Doug about the Dept of Corrections law suit: *Ben & Ric
- People we need: Media Contacts to write articles of current cases. Law School Students to form into Doug Clones.
- Contact ACLU/Alison in regards of demonstrating at the Fry case, filling the court room: *Ben
- Add CDC Logo to the donation envelop design: *Ben
